[TowerTalk] Arcfault Breakers

[Shane Youhouse]

Electrician here.  Dealt with AFCI and GFCI issues in my own house.

1.  It's not marketing BS to require your brand of breakers in your brand
of panel.  That's just stupid.  You really want manufacturer A to go
through every single breaker design, current rating, single, split and poly
phaser, to ensure that they don't make got spits in the buss bar, etc?  I
didn't think so.

Hint, using the wrong brand breaker in a panel WILL increase fire hazard
due to hot spots where the breaker comes into contact with the backplane.
Nice replaced panels in home fires where this happened.  Anyone telling you
different is a blowhard.

The only brand breaker rated and designed for multiple brand usage in
different panels is Eaton.  They actually went to far as to attain UL
approval for other brands of panels and their breakers.

2.  Siemens pretty much has owned every technology out there at one time or
another.  That doesn't snt make them universal in the eyes of NEC.

3.  AFCI breakers.  Yes, they do stop fires.  A simple Google search will
show who the blowhard spouting off at the mouth are. For instance, the CPSC
here in the USA has one study that shows almost 50 percent of fires in
residences can be eliminated with AFCI.

Early ones sucked!!!  I ended up yanking all of them out of my house.  That
was Square D branded breakers.  Required when the home was torn down to
foundation on remodel.

Eventually I found breakers, as others have mentuon d, that fixes the
issue.

Thank GOD Eaton had them certified with UL for Square D panels!

After replacement, no more issues.

4.  I used homebrew open wire line at my station.  Johnson flashbox fed,
legal limit.  I installed every single GFCI I could find, one by on, behind
the open wire line, until I found one that didn't trip.  It was a leviton
branded one.   I then used them throughout the garage / shop and everywhere
code needed in the house.

Hope this helps.  Yes, as the homeowner you can yank out all those pesky
AFCI breakers after inspection.

And then, 10 years later if there is a fire, and an inspection on record
that would indicate AFCI where installed and when the fire happened they
where not.....


You're screwed.

Much better to actually be safe, do the homework and find units that work
in rf environments and not do any half assed BS because a blowhard on the
internet flapped his arms around about nanny states and other jibberish.
 Seriously.  80 years ago we had knob and tube wiring, fuss in the neutral
line, etc.  I've even run across wiring like that, in use, in Bakersfield
in the last 10 years!  Must be safe, huh?

--Shane
WP2ASS / ex KD6VXI